Culture Shock

Santa Fe Way

Put on your broomstick skirt and take out a loan to buy dinner—in honor of the International Folk Art Market, it's Culture Shock, Santa Fe-style.

Tuesday, July 14, is Bastille Day, or as my dad likes to call it, French Fourth of July. If you haven't already made plans, the Santa Fe Art Institute offers a forge demonstration by artist and blacksmith Tom Joyce. He'll be hammering away from 10 a.m. to noon at his studio as part of the 2009 Visiting Artist and Lecture season, and the demonstration will serve as a fundraiser for SFAI. $50 will get you in to see one man, one hammer and one hot piece of metal. Coffee and pastries, too! The night before (Monday, July 13), Joyce will give a lecture at Tipton Hall on the College of Santa Fe campus at 6 p.m. For more information and directions, go to sfai.org.

Another Jewish Voice Santa Fe presents Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza, a 10-minute work by world-renowned playwright Caryl Churchill on Sunday, July 12. Directed by Maura Dhu Studi, the performance will be followed by a discussion. In lieu of admission, donations to Medical Aid for Palestinians will be accepted. The evening starts at 7 p.m. at El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe (1615-B Paseo de Peralta). See anotherjewishvoice-santafe.blogspot.com for more.

And it's opera season in Santa Fe! Will I follow in the footsteps of the inimitable Steven Robert Allen and attempt to review opera, or will I just snarkily tell you about it in an attempt to obscure the fact that opera freaks me out? It's too soon to tell about the former, so for now let's stick with the latter. Donizetti's comedic The Elixir of Lovetakes the stage on Friday, July 10, and Wednesday, July 15, while Verdi's La Traviatais featured on Saturday, July 11. All shows begin at 9 p.m. at the Santa Fe Opera, and tickets range from $28 to $188. See santafeopera.org for directions, tickets and more.